Superman Rogues Gallery Appreciation 2023

[Vordan]

Underrated aspect of New 52 Brainiac was how they portrayed him as an evil Jor-El figure. Would like to see that return.

Well, if Mx return, he could access the next level of malignancy:

Heh not to take away from Curt Swan’s legendary status but his art here didn’t really live up to how Moore was describing the transformation.

[Kuwagaton]

Tony Bedard is particularly good with the Brainiac family and it was a rare kind of excellent to bring him in to rehab the character.

That origin was based off his post Crisis one, actually.

[Venomized-spider-man]

Poor man zod has arrived in World's Finest
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[Jman27]

Poor man zod has arrived in World's Finest
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yeah I didnt know who he was had to google him up real quick I'm guessing as a kid I didn't watch him episodes

[marhawkman]

yeah I didnt know who he was had to google him up real quick I'm guessing as a kid I didn't watch him episodes

Jax-Ur? it's a short list.

OG Jax-Ur was in 1961 actually. DCAU was in the 90s, but only had 3 actual episodes with Jax-Ur. Apparently there was several more in tie-in comics though.

[Frontier]

Poor man zod has arrived in World's Finest
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Didn't see that coming!

[Kuwagaton]

It was weird, he was exactly the Zod they prefer to have and I don't think there was a reason why they didn't actually use Zod

[Vordan]

Poor man zod has arrived in World's Finest
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Yeah my reaction was “oh… this is who you chose Waid?” Guess Waid couldn’t pass up the chance to play with a Silver Age villain but it shows the difference between him and Morrison. Morrison really revamped Xa while Waid is just using the DCAU incarnation, when that was never the greatest take.

It was weird, he was exactly the Zod they prefer to have and I don't think there was a reason why they didn't actually use Zod

The mandate regarding Superman having to be the Last Son of Krypton (so no other Kryptonians) was still in effect at the time. That’s why they couldn’t use Zod and Ursa and made Jax and Mala into stand-ins.

[Frontier]

To think it wasn't Williamson who used a DCAU pull .

[Kuwagaton]

Yeah my reaction was “oh… this is who you chose Waid?” Guess Waid couldn’t pass up the chance to play with a Silver Age villain but it shows the difference between him and Morrison. Morrison really revamped Xa while Waid is just using the DCAU incarnation, when that was never the greatest take.

The mandate regarding Superman having to be the Last Son of Krypton (so no other Kryptonians) was still in effect at the time. That’s why they couldn’t use Zod and Ursa and made Jax and Mala into stand-ins.

But Jax Ur was a Kryptonian from the comics so it was the same thing lol. Right before they decided Zod was an Eastern European who molded his face to look like Superman. Funny times

[Vordan]

But Jax Ur was a Kryptonian from the comics so it was the same thing lol. Right before they decided Zod was an Eastern European who molded his face to look like Superman. Funny times

I just double checked his DCAU backstory and he was a Kryptonian it seems. No clue why they went with him since he was basically Zod, I guess DC didn’t let them for some reason, because he is basically Zod with Jax’s name. Bizarre decision process there.

[marhawkman]

I just double checked his DCAU backstory and he was a Kryptonian it seems. No clue why they went with him since he was basically Zod, I guess DC didn’t let them for some reason, because he is basically Zod with Jax’s name. Bizarre decision process there.

My guess is they just wanted to do an homage to the movie, not a direct recreation.... and had Sara Douglas play Mala... because why not?

[Thor-Ul]

I just double checked his DCAU backstory and he was a Kryptonian it seems. No clue why they went with him since he was basically Zod, I guess DC didn’t let them for some reason, because he is basically Zod with Jax’s name. Bizarre decision process there.

I could be wrong, but for my understanding, Jax-Ur was the usual enemy from the phantom zone in the silver age. Zod started to have recognition after the 1978 movie but before that the enemy from the Phantom Zone was Jax-Ur. He appeared more, he was the one who haunted more Superboy/Superman, everything Zod became in the movie, Jax-Ur was it before, during the Silver age, in the comics.

[Myskin]

I could be wrong, but for my understanding, Jax-Ur was the usual enemy from the phantom zone in the silver age. Zod started to have recognition after the 1978 movie but before that the enemy from the Phantom Zone was Jax-Ur. He appeared more, he was the one who haunted more Superboy/Superman, everything Zod became in the movie, Jax-Ur was it before, during the Silver age, in the comics.

Correct. Jax-Ur embodied the "Evil Kryptonian" trope way before Zod, even if Zod - technically speaking - was created a bit before.
In the Silver Age, Jax-Ur was a bald Kryptonian with a moustache whose experiments had destroyed one of Krypton's moon; he had been the first prisoner in the Phantom Zone, too (this detail was changed in recent years, when Morrison made Xa-Du the first Zoner - maybe to give the Phantom King a specific, Zone-related set of powers). He was the most recurring Zone criminal, followed by many other Zoners whose powers vaguely differed from him.

It should be noticed that most of the Phantom Zoners, Jax-Ur included, didn't even have a specific characterization. Zod's most defining traits came from Superman II and Terence Stamp's over-the-top, flamboyant style. From that moment on, Zod became THE "evil Kryptonian" (even if visually speaking he was a bit different from Terence Stamp) and Jax-Ur was more or less forgotten. His only remarkable reintroduction was in the DCAU, but this version of Jax-Ur, which is the same version reused by Waid, was basically Zod with a different name (even if in the DCAU comic book tie-ins they actually reintroduced a version of Zod: https://dc.fandom.com/wiki/Zod_(DCAU))

When Johns took over with the the Last Son storyline, Zod was made more similar to the Superman II version, but in one specific panel Johns also reintroduced Jax-Ur as the first Zoner (and the explosion of Krypton's moon was supposed to be related to Kandor's disappearance, even if this plot line was later discarded). In the New Krypton storyline there was a more substantial reintroduction of Jax-Ur, this time as a one-eyed scientist rather than a soldier. This specific version was abandoned until Bendis somehow reintroduced him (with two eyes though) in his Rogol Zaar storyline.

The most bizarre aspect in World's Finest 18 is not that Waid reintroduced Jax-Ur (it is a typical Silver Age concept after all, and we all know how much Waid loves classic characters), but that he decided to use a specific version of the character that has never been used in the comic books before, and probably the least interesting one. I guess that Waid wanted to pay homage to Silver Age Jax-Ur, but the deliberately chose not to revamp him visually and simply decided to follow the DCAU version, which is the least obscure one today.

[Vordan]

Yeah I could understand Waid using a Jax that leans more into him being a science terrorist (even though I would prefer Xa-Du for that role given Morrison’s revamp is superior to any Jax I’ve read), but the DCAU Jax… is just straight up Zod: https://dcau.fandom.com/wiki/Jax-Ur

Same backstory of being the leader of the Kryptonian military, launching a coup, but getting imprisoned by Jor. There was nothing from the Silver Age in him, plus Mala was a clear Ursa stand in too, so they must have wanted to use Zod but were blocked. As for Pre-Crisis Zod, Jax may have been used more but Zod was the leader of the evil Kryptonian Zoners in Gerber’s Phantom Zone mini:




Such a great story, and still one of Zod’s best.